DETROIT – More than 500 technology professionals and executives
attended the Third Annual Michigan Council for Women in Technology Executive
Connection Summit held on Tuesday, May 5 at the Detroit Marriott at the
Renaissance Center. The host was Emmy winning local journalist Carol Cain who
kicked off the event and moderated panels of Technology CEO’s and CIO’s
throughout the day. Cain was joined by Cindy Warner, President of MCWT, to
kickoff the event.
The event, sponsored by Ford, General Motors, and Fiat Chrysler
Automotive, started the morning with a powerful keynote from Alison Levine.
Everyone in the audience received a copy of her New York Times Bestselling book “On the Edge.” Her powerful stories of adventure paired with the lessons that
could be applied to business captivated the audience.
Levine’s tales of scaling seven summits against all odds is truly
an inspiration. The idea that sometimes you have to go down or take a step back
to keep climbing is true for all leaders in tough situations. Levine remained
to autograph books for some of the attendees.
The morning panel featured female role models’ perspectives
on disruptive trends transforming workplaces in a digital economy.
The panel agreed that the pace of technology change is key in increasing IT
opportunities for women and for the IT industry as a whole.
The afternoon keynote was delivered by Sue Schade, the CIO for the
University of Michigan Health Systems. She focused the beginning of her
presentation on eliminating barriers for young girls by suggesting ways
everyone could help females of all ages see opportunities in technology. From
suggesting leap frog electronic games or Goldie Blox as gifts, Schade made it
clear that we can all impact young lives in small ways.
She also shared how the opportunity to influence women doesn’t
stop with young girls. Schade is a leader that recognizes the value of creating
a community for women with careers in an organization. Her ideas for leaders to
help retain and grow their percentage of women in technology field were aligned
well with the goals of MCWT and enforced the importance of role models.
“We encourage technology professionals from
all industries to come together to learn and share
tips that fuel creative processes and novel thinking,” said MCWT
President Cindy Warner. “MCWT believes diversity is key to business competitiveness,
and providing women with access to mentoring, strong role models and
ongoing professional development will strengthen Michigan’s economy.”
After lunch, the Big Three auto makers’ CIOs formed a panel for discussion.
The only female CIO was Marcy Klevorn from Ford. Scott Sandschafer from Fiat
Chrysler Automotive also hosted some opening remarks and joined her on the
panel with Randy Mott from GM.
“This is truly an exciting time for the IT
industry,” saidSandschafer, vice president and CIO, FCA -North
America and Asia Pacific.”Information and communications technology is
literally the backbone of nearly every modern innovation that we touch, giving
IT professionals an unprecedented opportunity to create and improve products,
which ultimately make life better, too.”
Randy Mott, GM senior vice president and CIO, said
that ITplays a vital role in the success of every company.
“IT is a team sport, especially at GM,” Mott said. “We support
efforts like what the MCWT is doing to bring more people into our field and
develop our future leaders.”
The event featured a surprise guest when City of Detroit’s CIO
Beth Niblock took the stage at the closing. She discussed her perspective of
the post-bankruptcy era of Detroit, and offered solutions. She was optimistic
about the future for Detroit based on how technology can help provide more
transparency and increase community engagement. One example she gave was the
real estate auction site www.BuildingDetroit.org where multiple houses are
auctioned off daily in hopes of rebuilding the city.
“Detroit’s growing civic tech community has shown us what is
possible when people have the data about city government they need,” said
Niblock. “Our Open Data initiative is giving them that data, with the side
benefit of helping our citizens by being transparent about how city government
works.”
MCWT’s network brings together a diverse group
of stakeholders committed to seeing our IT community thrive. The day was full of impactful presentations, insightful panels, and
networking with hundreds of Detroit’s technology leaders. The attendees left
ready to innovate in both areas of technology and diversity with velocity after
hearing these speakers.
Find more information about MCWT at www.mcwt.org and connect via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and www.mcwtblog.org.
Associate Editor Nicole Johnson leads MITechNews.Com’s
efforts to foster STEM education, as well as provides coverage for her fellow
women in computing. If you have a story idea for Nicole, email
[email protected]. Follow Nicole on Twitter: @tech_nicole.
